Two Worlds in the Apocalypse: Each journey through the modern world lasts 60 seconds.

Chapter 163 On the Way

The SUV moved slowly forward in the twilight. Xu Mo gripped the steering wheel, his gaze occasionally sweeping across the rearview mirror.

The outline of Luochuan City had long since disappeared from view, replaced by endless wilderness. The sky was gradually darkening, the hazy gray deepening.

It was already evening when Xu Mo left Luochuan City.

Originally, Luo Li insisted on letting Xu Mo stay at their settlement for one night and take him to see their zombie factory.

"A zombie factory?"

Xu Mo was stunned for a moment when he heard this word.

Luo Li explained to Xu Mo that it involved utilizing the characteristics of zombies, restricting their freedom, and making them work. Grinding and generating electricity—zombies don't know fatigue; if properly controlled, they are perfect laborers.

It does sound very creative; not many people in the apocalypse would come up with such a method. Luo Li can control zombies, and with the cooperation of those mutated residents, they might actually create a unique survival system.

For a moment, Xu Mo was indeed tempted. He wanted to go and see what the "zombie factory" that Luo Li had mentioned was like, and how those mutated people lived.

But Xu Mo's curiosity quickly cooled down after his gaze swept over Kong to the side.

Kong stood at the edge of the ruins, with the four eyes of the two heads staring at him.

In the end, Xu Mo shook his head and refused.

Now, it's really getting dark.

Xu Mo turned his gaze from the rearview mirror to the road ahead. This road was a provincial highway heading southeast after leaving Luochuan City. The road surface was relatively smooth, but the fields on both sides were long overgrown with weeds. Occasionally, he could see a few abandoned vehicles parked crookedly on the side of the road. He needed to find a place to spend the night.

According to the map, there should be a town not far past Luochuan City, about ten kilometers away. However, that town is not on his main route, so he would have to take a detour.

Xu Mo hesitated for a moment, then gave up.

Taking a detour means spending more time, and who knows what's in that town? I might as well find a relatively safe place by the roadside to spend the night.

As darkness fell, Xu Mo turned on the car lights. Two dim beams of light cut through the night, illuminating the road ahead for dozens of meters. The roar of the engine sounded particularly clear in the darkness.

After driving for about twenty more minutes, a blurry outline suddenly appeared in the beam of the headlights.

Xu Mo narrowed his eyes and slowed down as he approached.

It was a house, or more accurately, a farmhouse inn.

The courtyard was quite large, surrounded by a low wall, and contained about ten houses. The houses appeared relatively intact, with no obvious signs of collapse. The gate was open, and it was dark inside, so it was impossible to see what was inside.

Xu Mo parked the car outside the gate and got out to check.

The flashlight beam swept across the yard, illuminating the overgrown ground and a few small, long-dead trees. Directly opposite the gate was a two-story building; the ground floor resembled a hall, its door ajar. Next to it were several single-story rooms, which appeared to be a kitchen and storage rooms.

Xu Mo approached the small building and shone his flashlight through the windows. The hall was empty, with tables and chairs overturned and some debris scattered on the floor. There were no zombies, no corpses, only thick dust and cobwebs.

Xu Mo stepped back and inspected the bungalows again. The kitchen was empty; there wasn't even a pot on the earthen stove. The door to the storeroom was open, and it was also empty.

The good news is there are no zombies here; the bad news is there is nothing at all.

Xu Mo stood in the courtyard for a while, the beam of his flashlight sweeping across the low walls around him. There were a few places damaged on the walls, but nothing serious. If someone were keeping watch, this would be a place where one could spend the night, albeit barely.

Xu Mo chose the first floor of that small building, found a room with a door, and decided to sleep there tonight.

The next morning, Xu Mo was awakened by the sunlight.

There were no curtains in the room, and a blinding ray of light shone directly on his face. Xu Mo squinted as he sat up, stretched his stiff neck, then stood up, pushed aside the obstruction blocking the door, and went out.

The sun was shining brightly; it was a rare treat in this post-apocalyptic world. The sky was pale blue, with a few wisps of white clouds drifting across the horizon. The sunlight shining into the courtyard gave off an eerie sense of vitality.

Xu Mo stood in the courtyard, looking around at the farmhouse inn.

Last night it was dark and he couldn't see clearly, but now in the daytime, the place seemed much larger than he had imagined. Besides the two-story building and a few single-story houses, there was a row of low buildings further into the courtyard, resembling staff dormitories or warehouses. The courtyard wall was made of stone; although some parts were damaged, the overall structure was intact.

The body is fairly sturdy.

Xu Mo walked around the farmhouse restaurant. The lobby was indeed empty, with some old paper, plastic bags, and empty bottles scattered on the floor. Several yellowed promotional posters were pasted on the wall, showing the farmhouse restaurant's signature dishes and contact information, but they had long since faded and become blurry.

Xu Mo squatted down, picked up the papers, and flipped through them. Some were menus, some were order forms, and some were scraps of paper left behind by someone; there was no useful information.

Xu Mo looked around at the other places and found that almost nothing that could be used had been left behind.

This reminded Xu Mo of the haggling people in Jiangcheng's trading market, and the survivors who argued fiercely over a few compressed biscuits. In the apocalypse, every useful resource is a matter of life and death. A pot, a knife, a box of matches—any of these could determine whether a person survives the next winter.

So it's not surprising that this place was searched so thoroughly.

Moreover, Xu Mo felt that this wasn't just one group looting, but rather many groups. Each group passing by would search the place thoroughly, taking anything they could carry. The first group took pots and pans, the second took usable tools, the third searched through drawers and cupboards for any forgotten canned goods, and the fourth group probably even removed the electrical wires from the walls.

"They really cleaned it up thoroughly!"

Xu Mo shook his head with a sigh and turned to leave.

Then Xu Mo's gaze froze.

In the corner of the yard, there was a pile of collapsed wooden frames.

The pile of wooden frames leaned against the corner of the wall. It was unclear whether it had been there before or had been knocked down later. Several logs were piled up haphazardly together, and Xu Mo's gaze fell on those logs.

He walked over quickly, squatted down, and reached out to touch the surface of one of the logs.

There were several deep marks on it.

These weren't ordinary scratches; they looked like they'd been cut by something sharp. Three parallel, deep grooves, each two or three centimeters deep, with smooth edges and not a single splinter of wood sticking out.

"Claw marks!"

The word immediately popped into Xu Mo's mind.

He reached out and ran his hand along the claw marks, feeling the smooth cut. It would take extremely sharp claws and an incredibly fast strike to leave such marks. Ordinary zombies couldn't do it, nor could ordinary wild beasts.

Mutant organism.

Xu Mo stood up and glanced around. Mutated creatures had been to this farmhouse before.

Soon, Xu Mo found several scattered bones elsewhere. The bones were whitish and had bite marks on their surfaces. Xu Mo squatted down to examine them closely. The bones were human thigh bones, along with several ribs. The bones had irregular breaks, indicating they had been torn apart.

Xu Mo stood up and went to check other places. This time, on a brick wall not far away, Xu Mo found claw marks, and next to the claw marks was a black stain that had been dried for a long time, he didn't know if it was blood or something else.

After reading this, Xu Mo could roughly guess what had happened: survivors had come to this farmhouse to scavenge for supplies. Perhaps it was one person, perhaps a small group. While they were searching, the mutated creatures appeared. They might have come following the scent, or perhaps they had been lurking nearby all along.

close.

Then the battle broke out, and as for the outcome...

Xu Mo looked at the bone fragments on the ground and gently shook his head. That was all there was to it.

The mutated creature feasted and then left. The survivors remained there forever, turning into an unrecognizable pile of bones.

As for where the mutated creature went afterward, whether it was killed by others, or whether it continued to roam this area, Xu Mo didn't know.

Xu Mo only knew that, judging from the degree of weathering of the wood and the color of the bones, this had happened some time ago. At least several months ago, perhaps even longer.

The mutated creature may no longer be in the vicinity, but it may still be.

Xu Mo stood up, his gaze sweeping over the desolate fields outside the courtyard. This area was indeed likely to harbor mutated creatures; given the large number of mutated zombies in Luochuan City, it wouldn't be surprising to find mutated beasts here.

Shaking his head, Xu Mo banished these thoughts from his mind. He took one last look at the claw marks and bone fragments, then turned and walked towards the courtyard gate.

The sunlight grew stronger, and Xu Mo gripped the steering wheel, looking at the road ahead.

It was only a little past nine in the morning, but the thermometer already showed 33 degrees Celsius. The wind blowing in through the open car windows was hot and carried a dry, earthy smell.

It had rained heavily just a few days ago; that night in Luochuan City, the rain was so heavy it could soak you to the bone. But now, the vegetation on both sides of the road is wilting, its leaves yellow and curled, looking like it's starving.

After driving for about an hour, Xu Mo suddenly noticed an unusual swaying in the withered grass in the distance to his left.

The swaying wasn't caused by the wind; it was a straight line, extending directly towards the road, as if something was moving quickly through the grass.

Xu Mo's pupils contracted slightly. He stepped on the brake, quickly turned off the engine, opened the car door, and got out. At the same time, he reached behind and pulled out the Barrett from the back seat.

The heavy gun fell into his hand. Xu Mo pulled back the bolt, pointed the muzzle at the swaying grass, and observed through the scope.

The thing in the grass was moving very fast; judging from its swaying trajectory, it was heading straight for the SUV. It was about 300 meters away, and that distance was rapidly decreasing.

Is it that mutated creature from the agritainment business?

Xu Mo didn't know.

But Xu Mo knew that the other party's target was clearly him.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, steadied the gun, and spoke towards the bushes in the distance: "You can speak." But Xu Mo stopped after only three words, because he saw that thing darting out of the bushes was a cheetah.

It's not an ordinary cheetah; it's much larger than a normal cheetah, measuring two meters long from head to tail and nearly one meter tall at the shoulder. Its fur is grayish-brown, covered with dark spots, and its limbs are long and powerful.

Its head was small, but when it opened its mouth, its fangs, which were seven or eight centimeters long, gleamed with a chilling light. Its eyes were amber, with vertical pupils staring intently at Xu Mo, its gaze filled with murderous intent.

It didn't slow down, nor did it pay attention to what Xu Mo wanted to say. It exerted force with all four limbs, leaping and bounding on the road several times, so fast that its trajectory was almost invisible, and pounced straight at Xu Mo.

"Bang!" The Barrett's roar echoed across the empty wilderness as a .50 caliber armor-piercing round shot out, tearing an invisible trail of death through the air. The mutated cheetah, suspended in mid-air, had no time to dodge; the bullet precisely pierced its skull and then exploded on the other side.

The head exploded like a watermelon struck by a heavy hammer, and the headless body continued forward for two or three meters due to inertia before crashing to the ground, sliding a distance before finally coming to a stop.

Xu Mo put down his gun and looked at the cheetah's carcass.

He's dead. Shot in the head, dead beyond any hope of survival.

Walking over and standing beside the carcass, Xu Mo looked down at the mindless cheetah. All that could be seen now were its grayish-brown fur and long limbs. Its paws were still covered in mud and bits of grass; it was impossible to tell where it had come from.

Xu Mo gently shook his head.

"If you could speak and communicate, you definitely wouldn't have died so quickly."

The corpse, of course, wouldn't answer. Xu Mo crouched down and examined the cheetah's forepaws. The claws gleamed coldly in the sunlight, easily five or six centimeters long. Those deep claw marks at the farmhouse must have been left by this creature.

That unfortunate survivor was probably torn apart by such claws.

Xu Mo stood up and looked at the cheetah's head again, if it could still be called a head.

The Barrett bullets were so powerful that they blew the mutated cheetah's entire head off, leaving only a bloody, mangled neck.

Xu Mo had originally wanted to see if it had any of those red crystal cores inside its head. There was one in the head of the mutated creature he killed outside Mori Town; Xu Mo had obtained a dark red crystal core there. He still didn't know what it was used for, but he always carried it with him.

This mutated cheetah, though smaller than the one in Mori Town, should be just as strong. If we could get another crystal core, we might be able to research some uses for it in the future.

Unfortunately, the head is gone.

Xu Mo clicked his tongue in regret and turned to walk towards the SUV.

The off-road vehicle continued forward, bypassing the carcass of the mutated cheetah. The carcass in the rearview mirror grew smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared from sight.

Xu Mo turned his gaze from the rearview mirror to the road ahead.

The weather is still very hot, and the sun is still very strong.

He recalled the way the cheetah had pounced on him, the pure killing intent in its eyes, and the words he wanted to say: "You can say it—".

Can it speak? Obviously not.

It was just a wild beast, a mutated creature driven by instinct. It pounced on its prey when it saw it, and chased after it by its scent. It couldn't think, couldn't communicate, and wouldn't ask, "Are you human or what?"

So it died.

Xu Mo thought of Kong again, and of Kong's words, "You killed my offspring, and I am heartbroken."

The difference between being able to communicate and not being able to communicate is enormous.

Those who can communicate can have dialogue, negotiation, and establish some kind of tacit understanding. Those who cannot communicate can only be killed.

Perhaps more communicative beings will appear in the future, and perhaps one day humans will have to coexist with those beings on this ruin, but not now.

Xu Mo stepped on the gas, and the SUV accelerated forward.

The sun scorched the earth, and the wilderness stretched endlessly.

The SUV drove further and further away on the highway, eventually disappearing into the sweltering distance.

Behind them, the cheetah's carcass still lay in the middle of the road, slowly stiffening under the blazing sun. In the distance, several mutated birds circled down from the grass, beginning to enjoy their unexpected lunch.

Further away, in the ruins of Luochuan City, the two-headed, four-armed being stood in the sunlight, looking up at the sky. Its human head had its eyes slightly narrowed, while its zombie head had its mouth open, emitting a soft hissing sound.

Standing next to Kong were Luo Li and Tian Tian; they were at the gathering place...

>